Chapter 15, The Stikine Ice Cap
Krakauer stays in his tent at the base of the ice cap for three days, not quite willing to retreat in defeat yet. After three days on the ice cap, Krakauer attempts once again to climb the north face of the mountain, quickly driven back down the mountain by weather and fear. However, when he returns, a storm buries him again and he decides to hide away in a snow drift. He must race to beat a storm to the summit once again, taking an extremely dangerous route to the top so as to beat out an approaching storm. After a series of near-deadly slips and close calls, he makes it to the summit. He returns home a month later to his carpentry job, gets a better apartment and begins putting his life back together. He ends the chapter with reflections on how his climb of the Devils’ Thumb did nothing to change his life or who he was, seeing how that could have done anything to chris when he climbed the mountain.
Chapter 18, The Stampede Trail
He decides to wait for the river to go back down and returns to his previous routine of hunting and gathering. A couple of days later though, he reports that he is starving and can hardly move. He blames potato seeds, though some believe he confused a wild potato plant with a poisonous sweet pea. Krakauer tests the seeds at the University of Alaska and finds swainsonine alkaloid, a substance that stops the human body from turning food into usable energy. It cause starvation regardless of how much you eat. It’s possible to overcome the poison but because McCandless was already so low on necessary sugars and protein, he could not flush it free. but in his last few days he tried to make the best out of it and try and hunt game and gather even thought the poison was still in him and killing him slowly, he started to think about everything he has done. His last note is dated for August 12, saying goodbye and stating that he had a happy life. He takes one last photograph and is believed to have died on August 18.
Krakauer stays in his tent at the base of the ice cap for three days, not quite willing to retreat in defeat yet. After three days on the ice cap, Krakauer attempts once again to climb the north face of the mountain, quickly driven back down the mountain by weather and fear. However, when he returns, a storm buries him again and he decides to hide away in a snow drift. He must race to beat a storm to the summit once again, taking an extremely dangerous route to the top so as to beat out an approaching storm. After a series of near-deadly slips and close calls, he makes it to the summit. He returns home a month later to his carpentry job, gets a better apartment and begins putting his life back together. He ends the chapter with reflections on how his climb of the Devils’ Thumb did nothing to change his life or who he was, seeing how that could have done anything to chris when he climbed the mountain.
Chapter 18, The Stampede Trail
He decides to wait for the river to go back down and returns to his previous routine of hunting and gathering. A couple of days later though, he reports that he is starving and can hardly move. He blames potato seeds, though some believe he confused a wild potato plant with a poisonous sweet pea. Krakauer tests the seeds at the University of Alaska and finds swainsonine alkaloid, a substance that stops the human body from turning food into usable energy. It cause starvation regardless of how much you eat. It’s possible to overcome the poison but because McCandless was already so low on necessary sugars and protein, he could not flush it free. but in his last few days he tried to make the best out of it and try and hunt game and gather even thought the poison was still in him and killing him slowly, he started to think about everything he has done. His last note is dated for August 12, saying goodbye and stating that he had a happy life. He takes one last photograph and is believed to have died on August 18.